18 FRONTIER NEWS FEATURE SUNDAY JUNE 12 2016

NTNE01Z01MA - V1

AS the crowdat Shagsenjoyed theend of a hotday with acold beer,and the

band competed in the noise stakes with a flock of rainbow lorikeets coming home to roost, a camera crew filmed recklessly beneath the trees they perched in.

“You can always tell the foreigners,” said Mike Blank,

general manager of Mantra on the Esplanade.

“They are the ones who walk under the trees at night.”

To locals this show of feathers is the norm, but for us it is an urban phenomenon. In fact, all the birding we witnessed during 10 days in Darwin and Kakadu proved the Top End boasts some of the best and most accessible birding sites in the world.

Our crew, led by British wildlife presenter David Lindo,

aka The Urban Birder, was shooting two mini films on the birds of Kakadu and Darwin.

Guided by birder extraordinaire Luke Paterson from NT Bird Specialists, we were in ‘bimbo’ heaven as soon as we landed. In birding lingo, a bird you have never seen before is a ‘lifer’, but with half the team from Spain we quickly adopted their term — ‘bimbo’. As we set off for Cooinda, the bimbos kept flying in. First timers to the

NT, everything was novel — galahs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, red-winged parrots — the colours that flitted across the road were mesmerising. Luke even spotted a frilled-neck lizard too. Was there no end to the wildlife on show in this incredible place? Our next few days suggested not.

AT Nourlangie in Kakaduwe watched various

honeyeaters and helmeted

friarbirds feeding on grevillea flowers, while a peregrine falcon swooped into its nest overhead. We went in search of an endemic species found nowhere else on earth, the white-lined honeyeater, which our hawk-eyed guides quickly tracked down.

As the sun reached its highest point at Nawurlandja Lookout, chestnut-quilled rock pigeons sought shade to feed and we followed their lead, heading to Lake Jabiru.

We spotted partridge pigeons by the road and trees bowed with the weight of hundreds of little red flying foxes. As dark fell the trees were relieved of their burden as the bats left en masse to forage, only to be replaced with a white cloud of little corellas — a spectacular changing of the guard.

The darkness did not endour birding success, with two barking owls perched outside our room and, around the corner, a great bower bird

STORY KATIE STACEY

Something to crow about

The NT’s featheredresidents put on an

incredible show for aninternational camera

crew recently, andproved you don’t have

to look far to findsensational species in

one of the world’s bestbirding spots

Clockwise from main: rufous owl in Darwin Botanic Gardens(Picture: RUBEN CEBRIAN); red goshawk (Picture: LUKE

PATERSON/NT BIRD SPECIALISTS); the crew consisted of RyanSage, David Lindo, Oscar Trioso, Sarah Burgess, Luke Paterson,

Ruben Alonso (back), Vanesa Palacios (front), Luke Massey andKatie Stacey; hooded parrot (Picture: LUKE PATERSON/NT BIRD

SPECIALISTS); David Lindo, The Urban Birder (Picture: VANESAPALACIOS); Darwin CBD at night (Picture: RUBEN CEBRIAN)

Stop dreaming and start packing. ESCAPE has partnered with Flight Centre to offer readers the opportunity to win a share of $20,000 towards their ultimate holiday!

For your chance to win, pick up your copy of the Sunday Territorian’s ESCAPE to get the unique codeword to enter the competition online at www.escape.com.au/win

Competition opens Sunday, May 29 and closes Sunday, June 19 with a new codeword published in ESCAPE each week.

YOUR SHARE OF $20,000 TOWARDS YOUR DREAM ESCAPE! WIN

Terms and conditions: Competition is open to Australian residents only. Competition opens 29/05/2016 at 00:01am AEDST and closes 19/06/2016 at 11:59pm AEDST. Winners will be drawn at 2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010. Total prize pool $20,000 inc GST. Winners will be notified by telephone or email on 20/06/2016 and announced by 21/06/2016 on www.escape.com.au/win.

The competition is a game of chance. For full terms and conditions visit www.escape.com.au/win. Authorised under permit numbers: NSW LTPS/16/03887, ACT TP 16/00964 and SA T16/863